Drive apparatus

ABSTRACT

A drive apparatus which in first place is intended for moving vehicles comprises a transportable carriage which has two wheels (3) and a drive roller (2) driven my means of a motor. Spring elements (7) normally keep the drive roller (2) and the support wheels out of contact with each other but by load, for instance when the carriage is pushed in under a vehicle wheel (8) a friction contact is established between the drive roller (2) and the support wheels (3) causing the carriage to move upon rotation of the drive roller at the same time causing the vehicle to be moved and the wheels (8) thereof are rotated. The carriage further has a handle (6) which preferably houses cables, hoses or the like for power supply to the motor and which has control means (5) such as switches or the like.

The present invention refers to a drive apparatus which preferably butnot exclusively is intended to be used for moving vehicles and the like.

In the manufacturing industry as well as in the repair business it is aneed to be able to easily and smoothly move vehicles and similar objectswithout using the engine that the vehicle may be equipped with. Also inother cases there is a need for an easily operable movable apparatus.

The object of the present invention is to provide such a device and toaccomplish this and further objects the invention has thecharacteristics which appear from the claims.

In the accompanying drawing an exemplary embodiment of the invention isillustrated and

FIG. 1 is a vertical section through a schematically illustrated driveapparatus while

FIG. 2 shows the same drive apparatus in a front view,

FIG. 3 is a side view, with one of the side walls removed, of a somewhatmodified drive apparatus and

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the drive apparatus of FIG. 3.

The drive apparatus illustrated in the drawing is in the shape of atransportable carriage which carries a drive motor 1, which in thisinstance can be an electric motor or a pneumatically or hydraulicallypowered motor. The drive motor moves a drive means 2 which in thepreferred embodiment consists of a friction roller and in theillustrated example the drive takes place via a chain transmission 4.The carriage 3 is supported by two wide support wheels 3', 3 thenon-rotatable shafts of which being bored through and inserted in oblongholes in the support plates of the carriage. Since a spring means 7fixed at the central part thereof, has the ends thereof inserted in saidbores in the shafts of the support wheels the shafts will be resilient.Normally the shafts are located somewhat lower than in FIG. 1 and thesupport wheels 3', 3 will consequently be out of contact with the driveroller 2. In this position the carriage can easily be transported. Byloading the carriage the support wheels may however be brought intocontact with the drive roller 2 and when the latter is driven also thesupport wheels are consequently driven. Associated to the carriage is ahandle 6 which in first place serves to operate the carriage and insecond place may serve as protection for cables, hoses or similar meansfor power supply to the drive motor. In such cases the handle canpreferably be shaped as a tube or the like. Control means 5 such asswitches, valves and the like may also be secured to the handle suchthat they are easily accessible for the operator.

The drive apparatus now described is intended to be opeated from theleft side but in many instances it is desirable to be able to choose theside from which the device is operated and for this purpose theembodiment in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 has a handle, which is designed in sucha manner that it has a first portion 6a, which continues in a portion 6bat right angles thereto and the latter portion has such a length that itfrom either side extends to the central portion of the drive apparatuswhere it via a bent portion 6c continues in a portion 9, which via asleeve 9 is pivotably connected to the middle of a centrally disposedtransverse element 10. Also in this case the handle preferably housescables, conduits or the like, provided to supply the drive apparatuswith energy and the handle further has control means 5 for suchpurposes. It is also possible to design the connections between theparts 6-10 air and/or fluid proof such that the handle will serve as aconduit for such a fluid. Owing to the shape of the handle and thepossibility of pivoting it the drive apparatus can be easily operatedfrom any suitable position.

The apparatus now described may be used in the following manner: If itis desired to use the apparatus to move a vehicle the apparatus istransported to one of the front or rear wheels 8 of the vehicle. Bypushing the apparatus into the substantially wedge-shaped space which isconstituted between the wheel 8 and the floor or the ground the carriage3 will be exerted to a load which moves the drive roller 2 andconsequently also the rest of the carriage 3 with exception for thesupport wheels 3', 3 downwardly at which operation as appears from FIG.1 the drive roller 2 at the same time as it comes in friction contactwith the vehicle wheel 8 also comes in friction contact with the supportwheels 3', 3". If the drive means 2 is then driven in the directionindicated by an arrow in FIG. 1 the vehicle wheel 8 and the two supportwheels 3', 3" will be driven in the directions of the arrows. This ofcourse means that the vehicle moves to the left according to FIG. 1.

The apparatus now described is very simple in its construction and owingto the light and handy construction it is also very easy to operate.

Although the invention has been described in connection with anapparatus for moving of vehicles it is obvious that the apparatus is notin any sense limited to such a use but may be used for a variety ofpurposes. It is thus possible to brake a vehicle instead of pushing itand it is of course not necessary to accomplish a turning or rotatingmovement in addition to a pushing or braking movement.

I claim:
 1. Drive apparatus, including a support carriage (3) whichsupports a drive roller (2) driven by a motor (1) and provided to actupon an object such as a vehicle wheel (8) preferably for rotating thelatter, characterized in that the support carriage comprises a frontsupport roller (3') and a rear support roller (3"), that the driveroller (2) is located above said support rollers with the rotationcentre thereof located in a vertical plane intermediate correspondingvertical planes through the respective rotation centres of the supportrollers (3', 3"), that the support rollers and the drive roller are sodimensioned that the latter (2) by insertion of the drive apparatus inthe wedge-shaped space relation between said object (8) and the floorcan be brought into contact with said object and that further the driveroller (2) by means of spring elements (7) is normally kept out oncontact with the support rollers (3', 3") but when pressed against theobject against the action of the spring force will be brought intofriction contact with the support rollers to act upon the latter as wellas upon the object (8).
 2. Drive apparatus as claimed in claim 1,characterized in that the support carriage also supports a motor (1)which preferably by means of transmission means (4) rotates the driveroller (2), and a handle (6) which preferably constitutes a protectioncover for cables and hoses for supplying the motor with power as well ascontrol means (5) for controlling the drive action.
 3. Drive apparatusas claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the drive roller (2) isprovided to act simultaneously on both support rollers for rotating themin the same direction.